


Car Park Kids

by randomwriter57



Series: Reigisa Week 2017 [4]
Category: Free!
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Cute Kids, Fluff, Gen, Gratuitous use of italics, Meet-Cute, Supermarkets, That's it that's the plot, but isn't that every fic i write lol, car parks, kind of??? it's way in the past lol, okay so this is set when they're really young kids okay so no romance here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-18
Updated: 2017-01-18
Packaged: 2018-09-18 11:12:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,077
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9382022
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomwriter57/pseuds/randomwriter57
Summary: Nagisa's never liked waiting in his mum's car by himself. But when he meets the boy in the car parked opposite him, it's not so boring anymore.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for [Reigisa Week 2017](http://reigisaweek.tumblr.com), Day Four: Friends.

Nagisa likes visiting the supermarket. Seeing so many new people in the same place, navigating between skyscrapers of bright-coloured packaging - it all feels like a big adventure, the kind he doesn’t usually get to experience under his mum’s watchful eye. When it’s just him and his dad, that’s when it’s the best. His dad will push him in the cart, sometimes a little faster down empty aisles. It’s always easier to sneak in his favourite foods when his dad isn’t looking, too.

Today, though, he’s with his mum. After picking him up from elementary school, she told him she needed to make a stop at the supermarket on the way home. When Nagisa goes to unbuckle his seat belt in the car park, however, she stops him.

“You stay here, sweetie,” she tells him. “I’ll only be a couple of minutes.”

Being in the car alone is a boring experience. There’s never anything to do, and no one to talk to. His mum doesn’t leave the radio on for him. All he can do is fiddle with the straps of his messenger bag and kick his legs in frustration. When he looks outside, he sees people walking towards the store. The cars in the spaces nearby are all empty.

Then another car parks in the space in front of him, nose facing him so he can see the driver clearly. It’s a lady who looks around the same age as his mother, but with pretty blue hair and round glasses. In the passenger seat, a boy who looks almost the same as her has his nose in a book. The boy’s mum - or at least, that’s who Nagisa assumes it to be - kisses her son on the top of his head before getting out of the car, leaving him alone in the passenger seat.

 _Perfect_ , thinks Nagisa. Now he has something to do.

He starts by waving frantically in the boy’s direction. The boy doesn’t notice, so he leans as far forward as he can in his seat, reaching for the front window so he can knock on it, chubby fingers reaching ever closer - but alas, he’s too short. Still, he won’t let something like this stop him. He unbuckles his seatbelt and moves onto his knees, leaning over the dashboard and reaching further forwards. He manages to tap the tips of his fingers against the glass, but the sound isn’t loud enough. The boy doesn’t look up.

Resorting to his final measure, Nagisa sits back down and pulls his pencil case from his schoolbag. Then he starts lobbing pens at the window. Luckily, it doesn’t take long for the boy to look up, puzzled.

Nagisa grins and waves.

The boy blinks at him for a second, unsure, then offers a small wave of his own.

If the boy had any hopes of getting rid of Nagisa, he has ruined them. The blond, delighted by the returned greeting, digs around in his bag for a notebook before turning to a new page and scrawling across it with one of the pens, _“Hi!! How are you?”_. He presses the notebook against the window.

For a second, the boy stares at the paper, frowning. Nagisa thinks he can't read the writing, so he pulls the pad back to write his message more clearly. But then the boy looks down, digging around in his own bag for a pen and paper before writing a reply.

_“I’m well, thank you. How are you?”_

_“I’m good!!! Your writing is nice.”_ It’s some of the neatest handwriting he’s seen, even nicer than Ki-chan in his class, who takes ages writing even one sentence because her writing is so neat.

 _“Thanks.”_ The boy looks puzzled as he shows his reply.

 _“What's your name?”_ Nagisa asks on his pad, eager to learn more about this kid who’s been stuck in the same situation as him. Maybe they’ll end up being friends. He hopes they do.

The boy writes some _kanji_ too difficult for Nagisa to decipher, then writes the _hiragana_ below it. _“Ryugazaki Rei.”_

Even though the surname is complicated, the boy’s forename - Rei - catches his eye immediately. Filled with excitement, he replies. _“You have a girly name too!!!”_

Rei frowns at his answer, lips forming a little pout. _“It’s not a girly name.”_

 _“Yes it is!! But it's okay my name's girly too!! I’m called Nagisa.”_ He writes his name in both _kanji_ and _hiragana_.

 _“Nice to meet you,”_ is Rei’s polite reply. He looks like he wants to go back to reading, but Nagisa’s already scrawling a new message onto his paper, the characters messy but still legible.

 _“What school do you go to?”_ After all, it can’t be Iwatobi Elementary, or else he would be in Nagisa’s class, right? Or at least, Nagisa would have seen him around.

Rei is writing a reply, taking his time on the characters, when the driver’s side door opens and Nagisa’s mum returns to the car, a small bag of shopping in her hand.

“What is all this mess?!” she says, eyes widening in horror as she takes in the sight of pens strewn all over the car.

“I was getting Rei-chan’s attention!” Nagisa says, pointing to the boy in the other car, who looks down at his book when his mum looks over.

“Rei-chan?” She looks over to the boy in the other car and sighs. “Nagisa, you shouldn’t harass boys in other cars, even if you know them. You can talk to him at school.”

Even though Nagisa tries to explain the situation to his mother, she doesn’t listen, instead telling him to pick up his pens quickly so they can leave. Once he’s seated and buckled in, she starts the engine of the car and he looks over to Rei’s car one last time.

The blue-haired boy is looking at him, his violet eyes wide behind red-framed lenses. He gives Nagisa a small wave, which Nagisa returns in earnest, and keeps returning even as his mother backs out of the parking spot and drives away. He waves until he can’t see Rei’s car anymore, lost in the sea of vehicles. Only then does he turn back around, slumping in his seat.

His mother sighs, keeping her eyes on the road. “It’s not like you’ll never see him again, Nagisa.”

Nagisa desperately hopes she’s right. After all, this is the first time he’s ever made a new friend his own age at the supermarket.

**Author's Note:**

> Kanji are Japanese characters which come from Chinese symbols with assigned meanings.  
> Hiragana are symbols with assigned sounds, such as あ = 'a' or の = 'no'.
> 
> Follow me at [randomactuallywrites-57](http://randomactuallywrites-57.tumblr.com) on tumblr | [@randomwriter57](http://twitter.com/randomwriter57) on twitter!


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